Sophocles Electra 72

Lewis Campbell (Translator)

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CHR
’Tis said she saw our father’s spirit come
Once more to visit the abodes of light;
Then take and firmly plant upon the hearth
The sceptre which he bore of old, and now
Aegisthus bears: and out of this upsprang
A burgeoned shoot, that shadowed all the ground
420
Of loved Mycenae. So I heard the tale
420
Told by a maid who listened when the Queen
Made known her vision to the God of Day.
But more than this I know not, save that I
Am sent by her through terror of the dream.
And I beseech thee by the Gods we serve
To take my counsel and not rashly fall.
If thou repel me now, the time may come
When suffering shall have brought thee to my side.
425

Electra. Sophocles. Lewis Campbell (Translator). London, New York and Toronto. 1906.

Current edition Experimental

English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (2)
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 72 focus
καὶ μή μ᾽ ἄτιμον τῆσδ᾽ ἀποστείλητε γῆς,
Greek (F. Storr, 1912) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. Storr, 1912)) — 121-250 focus
Translations (4)
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 77 focus
weh, weh mir!
(im Hause)
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 72 focus
Electra
Thou art :
Foul is thy speech, because thy deed was foul ;
For words from actions flow.
Cly. By chaste Diana,
625
Soon as j^gisthus comes thy boldness meets
625
Its just reward.
625
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 72 focus
Electra
558
Then I will speak. My father by thy hand
Was slain: thou freely dost avow the deed.
And can there be a deed of blacker stain,
E'en though he justly died? But I will say
That not with justice didst thou strike the blow.
No: the persuasions of that wicked man,
Thy base compeer in guilt, allured thee. Ask
The huntress queen Diana, why so long
At Aulis vengeful she restrain'd the winds;
Or I will tell thee; her thou may'st not ask!
My father, sporting in her sacred grove,
Once roused a dappled Hart, that bore aloft.
His branching horns; and glorying in the prize
Utter'd some vaunting words: at these incensed
The daughter of Latona in that port
Detain'd the fleet of Greece, that for her Hart,
A recompense my father might present...
His daughter: to the goddess thus she fell
A victim; else the fleet had been detain'd
560
Moor'd in that bay, and not a gale had 'swell'd
560
Their sails for Troy, or to the ports of Greece.
560
For this, reluctant and by sad constraint,
560
He sacrificed his daughter, just to Greece,
560
Not for his brother's sake. But (to allow
560
Thy plea) to grace the Spartan had his wille
560
Been to the deed assenting, for that cause
560
Behoved it thee to slay him? By what fight?
Take heed thou givest not sanction to a law
'Mongst mortals, which with vengeance will recoil
On thine own head. If blood must be repaid
With blood, if justice doth her office, thou: A
The first must die. Take heed, nor urge a plea
Of no avail. But tell me, if thy will
Assents to tell me, why dost thou persist
In actions most disgraceful to thy fame?
Why with a blood-stain'd murderer share thy couch,
Thy vile associate in my father's death?
How canst thou bear him children, and expose .TYD
As outcasts those, who from an hallow'd bed
Sprung hallow'd? How can I approve these things?
Or wilt thou say that for thy daughter's death/
These deeds are done to satiate thy revenge?
Shame on thee if thou say'st so; for to wedi
An hostile ruffian for a daughter's sake, d
Throws a foul stain on honour. But thy soul
Rejects monition: ever on thy tongue
Is this complaint, that we with rudé reproach({
Insult our mother: Am I then thy child?
Rather thy slave, and lead a servile life, fina
Ever beneath the yoke of ills oppress'd TI
By thee and thy compeer. Thy other child,
The poor Orestes, scarce escaped thy handjofT TVD
With misery, exiled from his country, lives
Oft dost thou taunt me that I train the Youth
To vengeance on thee: be thou well assured
This I had done, had I the pow'r. Now go,
Proclaim me to the world as base of soul, O
As insolent of tongue, as lost to shamed wo
If in these arts I am expert, they showlon is
That nor thy nature I disgrace, nor thee.
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 121-250 focus

Commentary

Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))

mvp-comment-255-1 πατρὸς … δευτέραν ὁμιλίαν 1

mvp-comment-255-2 ἐφέστιον πῆξαι 2

mvp-comment-255-3 This sceptre is described in the Iliad (2. 101 f.) as the work of Hephaestus, who gave it Zeus; Hermes transmitted it to Pelops, from whom it passed to Atreus and Agamemnon. The Homeric sceptre is often called

χρύσεον
( Il. 2. 268 , etc.), prob. as being ornamented with gold foil, or studded with gold nails ( Il. 1. 246
χρυσείοις ἥλοισι πεπαρμένον
). Among the objects found at Mycenae are some supposed remains of such sceptres (Schliem., Myc. 201, etc.).

mvp-comment-255-4 οὑφόρει ποτέ 3

mvp-comment-256-1 ἔκ τε 4 ἐκ δὲ 5

mvp-comment-256-2 βρύοντα 6

mvp-comment-256-3 ᾧ … γενέσθαι 7

mvp-comment-256-4 The vision resembles that of Astyages, who dreamed that a vine sprang from his daughter Mandanè, the wife of Cambyses,

τὴν δὲ ἄμπελον ἐπισχεῖν τὴν Ἀσίην πᾶσαν
. The
ὀνειροπόλοι
explained this to mean that her son (Cyrus) should reign in his grandfather's stead. ( Her. 1. 108. ) The spreading branches figure also in the dream of Xerxes (7. 19):
ἐδόκεε...ἐστεφανῶσθαι ἐλαίης θαλλῷ, ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς ἐλαίης τοὺς κλάδους γῆν πᾶσαν ἐπισχεῖν
.

mvp-comment-256-5 In choosing the sceptre of Agamemnon as the stock from which the wondrous growth is put forth, Sophocles may have had in mind the words of Achilles ( Il. 1. 234 ff.);

ναὶ μὰ τόδε σκῆπτρον· τὸ μὲν οὔποτε φύλλα καὶ ὄζους
|
φύσει, ἐπεὶ δὴ πρῶτα τομὴν ἐν ὄρεσσι λέλοιπεν
, |
οὐδ’ ἀναθηλήσει
.

mvp-comment-257-1 του παρόντος 8 τοῦ 9 παρόντος 10 του 11

mvp-comment-257-2 Ἡλίῳ δείκνυσι τοὖναρ 12

Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus

417. mvp-comment-180-1 λόγος τις.. ἐστιν] It is said,' viz. by the attendant who heard her tell her vision to the Sun, infr. 424, 5.

417-419. mvp-comment-181-1 πατρὸς ἐς φῶς] Our father again amongst us, revisiting the realm of light; i.e. τὸν πατέρα δεύτερον ὁμιλοῦντα (τοῖς ἐνθάδε), -abstract for concrete.

419. mvp-comment-182-1 εἶτα, κ.τ.λ.] These words depend immediately on λόγος τίς ἐστιν. Chrysothemis proceeds to narrate the vision as a matter of fact.

421. mvp-comment-183-1 τανῦν δ᾽ Αἴγισθος] Sc. φέρει.

424. mvp-comment-184-1 τοῦ παρόντος] 'The one who was present.' As a matter of course Clytemnestra was not wholly unattended in the day-time. Hence the article. Some editors have preferred the indefinite του; but the use of παρόντος = παραγενομένου is less natural in this case, and the double predicate παρόντος, ἐξηγουμένου, is awkward. A female attendant is meant, the masculine form being used, as in Trach. 151, etc. See Essay on L. § 20. p. 30. 2.